HARLEY, ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD, was born in London in 1661, of a family lung of distinguished note in the county of Hereford. His grandfather, Sir Robert Harley, was master of the mint in the reign of Charles I., and his father, Sir Edward, was governor of Dunkerque after the Restoration. In the troubles of the 17th century the Barleys acted with the Presbyterian party, of which the family was considered one of the heads, and although both Sir Robert and his son Sir Edward took the field on the side of the parlia ment in the early part of the civil war, they went into opposition when the republicans obtained the ascendancy, and Sir Edward after wards took an active in bringing about the Restoration. The subject of the present article entered parliament after the Revolution as member for Tregony, and afterwards sat for Radnor, professing for some time the Whig principles of his family. After a transition period however, in which he followed a course that perplexed and successively excited the expectations of all parties, he went fairly over to the Tories, and soon became one of their most active and efficient combatants in the House of Commons. In the House which met under the tory administration of Rochester and Godolphin, in February 1701, Harley was elected speaker by a great majority; and even in the next parliament, which assembled in December of the same year, although his friends now appeared in diminished numbera, they were still strong enough to place him again in the chair. Ile was a third time chosen to the same office by Queen Anne's first par liament, in October 1702, and retained it till April 1704, when he was made secretary of state. He is believed to have been principally indebted for this promotion to the good offices of Miss Abigail Hill, who had been Introduced into the royal household by her cousin Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, and who was by this time beginning to supplant her patroness in the queen's favour. Miss Hill's father, it seems, a merchant in the city, who had fallen into distressed circum stance!, was as near a relation of Harley as her mother was of the duchess ; snd this circumstance bad probably something to do in bringing him and the daughter together. According to the scandalous chronicle of the Duchess of Marlborough, Mies Hill, having fixed her affections on Mr. Masham, the queen's page, applied to her cousin Harley for his aid in forwarding her object : by Ilarley's management she became Mrs. Masham; and in return she exerted all her influence to attach the weak mind of the queen to Harley and his friends. It is certain that from this time also and Harley acted in confederacy splint the Marlborough interest. In this state of things the latter party began to seek a new support by inclining towards the Whigs; and various circumstances chanced for the moment to favour this line of policy. In the parliament which met in October 1705, the
Whigs were stronger than they had been since the beginning of the reign ; this sufficed to introduce Into the cabinet two distinguished members of that party, William Cowper, Esq. (afterwards Lord Cowper), as lord chancellor, and Charles, earl of Sunderland, the son ln•law of Marlborough, as one of the secretaries of state, But the struggle was finally decided against Harley by the public suspicion sad odium to which he became exposed in consequence of the con viction of one of his clerks named Gregg, for carrying on a treasonable correspondence with France. Gregg, who was executed for his crime, left a paper with the sheriff, in which he entirely exculpated Harley : even this however did not allay the outcry against the latter ; it was said that he himself was the writer of the paper, which he had induced Gregg to sign and to deliver by the promise of a reprieve. On the other hand, Harley's friends asserted that the strongest endeavours were made by the opposite party to suborn Gregg, and to prevail upon him, by the promise of a pardon, to accuse Harley. In the beginning of February 1705, after the conviction, hut before the oxecutiou, of Gregg, the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin intimated to the queen that unless Harley were removed, they would leave her service; oa this, although it is believed that the queen was herself willing to incur the threatened risk of continuing to support him, the secretary resigned, along with his friend St. John (afterwards Lord Bolingbroke). Harley remained out of power for about two years and a half ; at the end of which time the Whig ministry was partly undermined by his intrigues and those of Mrs. elashain, partly destroyed by its own imprudence end over-confidence. In August 1710 Godolphin was dismissed, and Marley was appointed chancellor of tho Exchequer, all the other Whig members of the cabinet having at the same time resigned or been turned out, and Tories put in their places. A new parliament was soon after called, which completely sanctioned this arrangement ; so inflamed was the temper of the public mind against the late ministry, that only about a hundred of their friends were returned from all England. The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, and all their connections, were now completely dis carded both from office and from the queen's favour, which continued to the end of her life to be wholly engrossed by Mrs. Masham (whose husband was soon after made a peer), and by those to whom she lent her influence and protection.